How to Make Coffee Cake Cookies

I love a piece of rich and buttery New York crumb style coffee cake with a cup of tea.

Coffee cake isn't the easiest for sharing, though, requiring plates and utensils to serve. Coffee cake cookies are the perfect way to capture the flavor of coffee cake to share with friends and family without needing a knife. A cakey sugar cookie base with plenty of crumb topping, these cookies remind me of a Sunday morning brunch.
Coffee cake cookies aren't difficult, but they do require some time.

How to Make Coffee Cake Cookies

The cookie base is a fluffy sugar cookie, reminiscent of cake, with its almond and vanilla flavor and a large, soft crumb. The dough requires some time to chill in the refrigerator, so this is a cookie that is best planned for and baked on a long afternoon.

You start this cookie by mixing up the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Then set this bowl aside. Next, you want to cream together the sugar and room temperature butter. All ingredients are best at room temperature when making a cookie, as it helps for a smoother, more cohesive dough to come together.

After the sugar and butter are blended until creamy, at least three minutes of beating, add in the egg, sour cream, and extracts and blend until well mixed. You can use full fat or light sour cream here but skip the non-fat.

The next step in making coffee cake cookies is to blend the dry ingredients into the wet just until combined and there are no more patches of flour.

Now is when the cookies need to rest in the fridge, covered, for one hour.

While the dough rests, we are going to mix up our crumbs. Whisk together flour, packed brown sugar, and cinnamon until a mostly lump-free mixture comes together. Then pour over melted butter and using two forks or a butter cutter, blend and break up the mixture until small crumbs appear. Then, you can set this mixture in the fridge as well.

You may need to use a fork to break these up after chilling, but the cold will help the crumbs keep their shape while baking.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

After the cookie dough has chilled for an hour, pull it out and scoop 2-3 tablespoons of dough out onto a parchment or silicon mat lined baking sheet, leaving three inches between. We want large cookies here.

Roll each scoop into a ball, and then press down onto the cookie sheet to flatten. Mound a scoop of crumbs on top of each cookie, pressing slightly into the cookie base to help it stick.

Bake cookies for 13 minutes. When you press a fingertip into the side of the cookie, it should bounce back some. Let cool on the cookie tray for at least ten minutes before moving to a wire rack to finish cooling. Once cool, dust the cookies in confectioners sugar for that coffee cake look.

Tea Pairings

While named after coffee cake, these cookies pair perfectly with a pot or mug of tea. I enjoyed mine with a black tea from Plum Deluxe's royal line, the Royal Assam black tea. Assam is a malty, medium-bodied tea that is close to, but much better than, what you'd expect from a teabag. This combination makes this a homey, comforting cup of tea perfect for a baked treat.

If you're not a fan of Assam or breakfast teas with Assam in them, pair it with your favorite chai, like Full Moon Chai or Stargazer Caramel chai. These spiced blends have a little something extra to give them some creaminess that pairs perfectly with these cookies.

If you love coffee cake, Plum Deluxe's blog has several recipes, including a Full Moon Chai coffee cake, coffee cake bread with caramel sauce, gingerbread coffee cake, and apple cardamom coffee cake to give you plenty of recipes to enjoy.